| [BACK]
My POV
Brian A. Wilson
THE STUDIOS: EXIT STAGE LEFT
Here's my thought for the day:
The studios are dead.
Like the ornery outlaw in a Tex Ritter western, they've been shot through and through, but they're taking forever to die. To further torture the metaphor, they're dying the death of a thousand cuts, of a million cuts, each one inflicted by the lash of digital video. They've lost their grip on production, and are now losing it on distribution. Both losses are due to one driving force: Changing technology.
Studios may continue to act like banks, because everybody needs money. But they're not the towers of power they once were. The Internet has stolen distribution from them. As technology leap-frogs itself, the online image will improve to the point that the ?Net will work just fine as a distributor, thank you. You'll be downloading the latest blockbuster through your fiber-optic-cable modem and piping it into your liquid crystal flat screen viewer, listening to it via digital surround sound.
If it takes five years to reach that point, I'd be shocked.
Perhaps the studios cling to the specious notion that the "movie-going experience" will still bring people out to brick-and-mortar theaters. Between parking lot muggers, stale, salty popcorn, sticky floors and people talking on their cell phones, I'm not quite sure which part of said experience is supposed to make us so eager to shell out $8 a head to see a movie. If we do go, all too often it'll be a scratchy print on a small screen, some of which may even be in focus.
Presently, the only factor driving audiences is timing. When (not if) the ?Net really kicks in gear, I have no doubt movies will be available on line as soon or sooner than they are on the not-so-big screen at the megamultiplex near you.
What does that mean for us writers?
More opportunity. Faster consumption of our work. More demand for more shows and more variety. The chance to create fresher, original material that can still be commercially viable. The need to adapt to and adopt emerging technology, and use it to get our stories to new audiences.
It means we, the originators, the storytellers, will be around forever, even if the once-dominant studios are not.
Keep writing.
BW
bigtex@loop.com |
